FirstSchool Director Sharon Ritchie created this resource for our PreK-3 partner educators. We hope that this resource helps support and drive your teaching as you consider the research base that drives FirstSchool initiatives. This quick “cheat sheet” summarizes the major points of key research articles that address oral language/vocabulary, collaboration, self-regulation, culturally relevant teaching, teaching approaches, expectations, use of classroom observation data, and children's trajectories. A full list of citations is provided at the end.

Practical resource from the National Institute for Urban School Improvement on how teachers can build their awareness of their own culture, values, and beliefs, and then foster inclusiveness as they build and present culture within the classroom.

Tool from the Smart Start National Technical Assistance Center to help practitioners assess their current leadership, strategic planning, resources, decision-making and systems management, public engagement/advocacy, effective practices, and assistance available to staff.

This FirstSchool brief by Ritchie & Crawford (2009) outlines the importance of increasing the amount of time PreK-3 teachers spend on planning, meeting with colleagues, meaningfully interacting with individual students, and engaging with families.